Today, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association held a presentation dealing with the Analyze of Practice in Discussing Administrative Suits at the venue of the Hotel Ambassador. The event was organized within the framework of Publicity of Information that will continue from August 1 to August 10.

Giorgi Chkheidze, the head of the association, stated the research has been going on for four months. It aimed to assess the efficiency of the activities of corresponding administrative bodies while discussion administrative suits dealing with the publicity and access to information since changes were introduced into the law regarding such kinds of legal suits. More precisely, on December 29 2007 an amendment was introduced to the law according to which the petitioner has to submit the complaint first to higher administrative body and then to the court.

During the implemented research the GYLA submitted 100 applications and 83 suits to administrative bodies. 62, 65 percent of the submitted suits were received but not acted upon.

Nina Ghvinianidze, one of the authors of the research, stated that the survey demonstrates the fact that in most cases administrative bodies do not know the essence of the administrative suit and procedures for eventual discussions. Those responsible for case discussion rebuked them for having submitted the suit and advised them to send repeated or more detailed applications to their institutions. Such a similar attitude has negative influence on case discussion procedures and possible outcomes.

Administrative bodies formally precede the cases regarding administrative suits. Consequently, the amendments made in December of 2007 were not effective and it contradicts two articles of the acting Georgian Constitution. More exactly, it restricts the publicity of information and accessibility to the court.

The GYLA intends to bring suit to the Georgian Constitutional Court today and will request to discuss the amendments introduced on December 29 2007, as whether their compliance to the Constitution must be guaranteed or not.